Not a hat trick but I wonder if they'll take the goal away. It should be credited to Hall.

Oilers have to play 60 minutes to beat a canucks team that is playing just terrible hockey everywhere. THe canucks can win by playing 20 minutes. Pretty much explains the difference between the two teams.

Why isn't everyone on the team skating with meaning and desire like Chris Higgins this year so far?

Malhotra is useless.

Bieksa is back in Dumbville again.

And Lou-Flop-O belly is flopping the ice again.

Nice fucking punch Volpatti returned with.

You're being a bed-wetter. You always hammer this team, but give them more than 4.5 games.

Sturm is an older player, coming off surgeries, he's on a new team. GIVE HIM 10 GAMES before passing judgment.

Samuelsson is one only 2 or 3 Canucks who has a nose for the net and will fire the puck, he is a useful cog in the machine.

Malhotra is not useless, the guy wins pretty much every draw he takes. Again he's an older player coming of a SERIOUS injury. Give him 8 to 10 Games before passing judgement.

Not sure where you are going with Bieksa.

I'll give you the Luongo stuff, but not based on tonight. Luongo is certainly overrated and overpaid but tonight's goals are not on Red Light Roberto.

Just take a few breaths, think about last season and note the similarities in the personnel, the coaching staff, the management and even the start. This team will be 100+ points and in the playoffs, fear not.

tantalum wrote:
Amazing how quick the Oilers break down when you get precisely two good shifts in a row down low in the Oilers zone.

Well that's exactly it. The Canucks have (again) been 70% awful in this game. But this is the kind of game the Canucks would win last year. We'd stink the joint out, and still win the game.

Higgins was great. Salo was great. Sedins were themselves (pretty darned good). The rest of the team was meh, but you could see they're getting back into the swing of things. They're realizing that it's not going to be a cakewalk back to the finals, that they might have to block a shot or take a hit to get a win against a weaker team. The fact that's coming 5 games in can only be a good thing going forward.

Execution and timing is still a problem. But it will come with more games and the return of an important (re: Selke) player or two...

With all the shot blocking in the third it was almost as if the canucks simply said "enough of this shinny crap, let's show those kids what being in the NHL is all about". It was a good third period until a couple of tense moments at the end.

Those kids are very good players but the Oilers are SOOOOOO far away from being competitive as a team.